How Stress Can Take A Toll On Your Physical Health

If there is one thing about our shared existence that we all experience it is stress. Stress affects everyone whether it’s from extreme working conditions like those of a fire-fighter, the pressure of deadlines or the challenges of relationships. Expected and unexpected daily challenges in your job or at home expose people to a constant deluge of forces that threaten your normal state of mind. But people often don’t realise that stress can actually be doing a lot of damage to our physical health.

Uncontrolled stress has been linked to an increased risk of serious health issues such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes and autoimmune disorders. Of course, it can also be responsible for mental health problems that naturally affect physical health too. These can include cognitive and memory problems and mental disorders such as depression.

In addition, stress can leave you with an inability to cope with the pressure that life throws at you. Because of that, it can lead to bad habits such as smoking, overeating and alcohol abuse which can all compound the negative health effects.

We all understand that stress is a normal part of life that occurs when the brain perceives a troubling situation that it cannot cope with. However, it can become a problem when you can no longer turn off your brain’s reaction to stress. And while it is true that everyone experiences stress, not everyone manages it the same way – some are better than others. The reasons for this vary and can include genetics and the degree of exposure to stressful situations beginning from when they are in the room.